On August 2nd 1100, King William Rufus is killed in mysterious circumstances in Brockenhurst Forest. This critical event of 1100 ushers in a new century, a time of uncertainties when the world seems to be changing and new political forces are coming into play. The balance of power is shifting, making way for an age of high-powered diplomacy where clever men can make or unmake kings.
The story follows the lives of characters from the previous book through this period of transition, as they adjust to changed times, rising to new challenges, learning to adapt. Edith grows up to pursue her great destiny under a changed name. Aefled and her family continue their journey towards the centre of Anglo-Norman politics. Eadmer the Canterbury monk, suffers the greatest disappointment of his life at the hands of the man he idolises; Robert Curthose, the lacklustre Duke of Normandy, wages a lifelong battle against his father’s ghost; Firmin, the devoted servant of Ranulf Flambard, sees his master’s fortunes reach their lowest ebb as he becomes the first state prisoner to enter the grim fortress of the Tower. Unflappable and irrepressible, Flambard engineers a legendary escape and then pursues a fiery path through the politics of Normandy and England. A man who stoked controversy in the courts of two kings, a financial fixer, an inspired political pragmatist, a low-born self-fashioner who became one of the most powerful figures in the kingdom, first as the adviser of kings, and then as Bishop of Durham, Ranulf Flambard is only one of a gallery of distinguished contemporaries who are brought to life in this book – Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, monk, sage, theologian who dares to speak truth to power; Baldwin of Tournai, his enterprising man of affairs and spokesman; Henry I, the canny, cat-like king who is suspected of conniving at the death of his own brother, and the remarkable Matilda, formerly Edith, wife of Henry, Queen of England, poised, intelligent and manipulative, a significant political figure in her own right who, despite a great personal tragedy, keeps her finger on the pulse of affairs – Ranulf Flambard is just one of a group of exceptional people who steer Anglo-Norman policies in the years 1100 -1109.
After the Arrow shows them struggling to deal with the issues of their times, from national politics to personal misfortunes, imprisonment, exile, illness, loss, and the business of trying to keep a career afloat in a scene of swiftly changing allegiances.
Ranulf Flambard is a pragmatist who lends backing to what others propose but thinks beyond the scope of other men. Henry I drives a military campaign against his ancestral homeland while claiming to be ‘saviour of the Norman churches’; Matilda, suffering from a profound fear of childbirth, struggles to produce an heir; Eadmer overcomes crushing disappointment to write a book still worth reading; Archbishop Anselm, victim of long periods of exile and disfavour, defends his principles through a long and dogged life and closes an exceptional era with his death.